All Electric Volvo C30 Makes its Official Debut - VIDEO
ENHANCED

It looks like a regular Volvo C30 and it features the very same safety,
comfort and space as the standard car. The difference is that it is powered
solely by electricity, entirely without exhaust emissions, and has a range
of up to 150 kilometres.

GOTHENBURG - January 7, 2010: Volvo Cars' ambitious electrification
strategy has quickly produced concrete results. In addition to the market
introduction of a plug-in hybrid in 2012, work is currently under way on
evaluating the viability of an entirely electric-powered car known as a BEV
(Battery Electric Vehicle).

In 2009, a small number of prototype versions of the C30 BEV have been
built and tested internally by Volvo. In addition to focusing on
performance and safety, much of the focus is on integration of the electric
propulsion system with the rest of the car.

Click PLAY to watch video

"The Volvo C30 is the first model we will try out with electric power.
This car's excellent properties in city traffic and its relatively low
weight make it particularly suitable, since electric cars are primarily
expected to be used in and around cities and for daily commuting," says
Lennart Stegland, Director of Volvo Cars Special Vehicles.

Technical solution Electricity is highly suitable as a fuel for
passenger cars. It is the superior energy efficiency of the electric motor
compared with the combustion engine which suggests that electric cars will
become increasingly common in the future as fuel prices rise and demands
for low CO2 emissions become ever more stringent.

The Volvo C30 BEV is powered with a Lithium-Ion battery that is charged
via a regular power socket found in most homes.

Recharging an entirely depleted battery via the regular household power
supply system (230V, 16A) will take about eight hours. If the car is
charged with renewable electricity this means that emissions – all
the way from electricity production to its use out on the road – will
in principle be non-existent.

The electric motor is housed under the bonnet, just like the engine in a
conventional car. One of the priorities within the BEV project is to find
the optimal placing of the battery. Most likely the best places are the
prop shaft tunnel and the place where the fuel tank normally is located.
These locations are within the car's optimised crumple zone in the most
common collision scenarios. Since the car runs solely on electricity, it
requires a larger battery with higher capacity (24 kWh) than in the case of
the plug-in hybrid (12 kWh).

Battery capacity The C30 BEV is limited to a top speed of about 130
kilometres an hour, which will be more than sufficient for most users of
this type of car. Acceleration from 0 to 100 kilometres an hour will take
less than 11 seconds. The car will have a range of up to 150 kilometres.
This range is longer and far better than the distance 90 percent of all
Europe's motorists drive per day.

The same safety standards as always Volvo Cars imposes the very same
high safety standards on all its products irrespective of the type of fuel
or power source used. Volvo's safety dedication is always focused on the
human being and is based on solid knowhow of real-life traffic situations.
What is more, comprehensive in-house tests are carried out both virtually
and in Volvo's highly advanced crash-test laboratory. If Volvo chooses to
introduce an entirely new type of electric car on the market, it will be
just as safe as any other car bearing the Volvo badge.

Volvo has theoretically identified all the electrification-related
safety scenarios in the stages before, during and after a collision. After
careful study of these scenarios, the company's engineers will create
solutions for handling each and every situation identified, guaranteeing
that any future electric cars fully match Volvo's renowned safety standards
in every respect.

Market potential Volvo Cars' main electrification track over the coming
decades is plug-in hybrids. This applies in particular to the company's
larger car models. The combination of electric motor and combustion engine
is the solution that probably has the greatest potential from both the
technical and commercial viewpoints. Plug-in hybrids offer long range, good
environmental performance and at the same time limited dependence on
expensive battery technology.

There are several factors that determine how successful dedicated
electric cars will be in the future:

"The consumer must feel that this type of car is attractive both to
drive and own. In order to ensure this, we feel that electric cars will
have to be as comfortable and safe and offer similar levels of performance
as cars with other power sources. The learning from the C30 BEV project
will help us to fulfil all these criteria and showcase Volvo's
determination to drive developments in the field of electrification," says
Paul Gustavsson, Director of Electrification Strategy at Volvo Cars.